Tax raids on Cafe Coffee Day find Rs 650 cr concealed income

Bengaluru: The Income Tax Department raids on Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) retail chain since Thursday found Rs 650 crore concealed income from the documents seized, said an official on Sunday.

“Documents seized from the search operations at 25 places of Cafe Coffee Day and its group companies in Karnataka, Mumbai and Chennai have revealed concealed income of over Rs 650 crore,” a senior tax official told IANS here.

The search and seize operations, which began on September 21, concluded on Sunday evening in the offices of the group involved in coffee, tourism, IT and other areas.

“The searches concluded with the group’s officials admitting to concealed income exceeding Rs 650 crore and the detection of undisclosed income, which is expected to be a much higher figure,” said another tax official in an e-mail to IANS.

The offices and residence of CCD’s founder-owner VG Siddhartha and its other officials in Bengaluru, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan and Mysuru across Karnataka were also searched during the last four days. Siddhartha is the elder son-in-law of former External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who was also Chief Minister from 1999 to 2004 but earlier this year left the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“There are a number of other issues, including violations of other statutes on which there is no disclosure but relevant evidence has been found. These will be pursued effectively as part of our investigation,” added the official in the e-mail.

The raids were conducted under the directions and supervision of the Income Tax Department’s Investigation Cell Director-General BR Balakrishnan.

The corporate office of the Amalgamated Bean Coffee (ABC) Trading Company, which runs the CCD’s retail outlets across the country, its branch offices at Chikkamagaluru, Mudigere and Sakeleshpur in Karnatakas’ Malnad region were also searched during the exercise.

“Though we have found and seized a number of documents related to properties, business transactions and other dealings, they are subject to scrutiny for violations, if any,” added the official.